Health Minister Alexandre Padilha said on Tuesday that he evaluates whether he will go to the International Conference of the Pan American Health Organization (PAH) and the General Assembly of the United Nations (UN), scheduled for September in New York.
The statement was given at the time when the minister’s 10 -year -old’s 10 -year -old daughter Entry visas in the United States canceled by the US government on August 15. The minister’s visa is not able to cancel because he has been overcome since 2024.
“I do not have a decision yet if I will appear both the UN General Assembly and the General Assembly of PAHO, due to local commitments [no Brasil]”, he said.
“We have difficulty leaving Brasilia due to voting at the National Congress of Service and the Implementation of [programa] Now there are specialists. I don’t have the decision yet whether I can participate or not, ”he explained.
In breakfast with journalists, the minister cited a statement by northeastern writer Ariano Suassuna (1927-2024), who expresses surprise.
“There are people who think the world is divided into who went to Disney, and who wants to go to Disney, or who has not been to Disney,” he said, adding ironically, “I have no intention of going to Disney.”
More doctors
Two days before the cancellation of the visa of family members of the Minister of Health, the US Department of State revoked The visas of Brazilian government officials linked to the implementation of the Mais Médicos program, created in 2013, under the government of former President Dilma Rousseff.
The Federal Government program, in this third term of President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, has the name Mais Doctors for Brazil.
“I always said that this would not shake our defense of the Mais Médicos program and the action of the Ministry of Health to defend health. We will continue to work for the Mais Médicos program,” said Minister Alexandre Padilha.
Public policy to care for users of the Unified Health System (SUS) leads doctors to priority, remote, difficult to reach, and with a high vulnerability rate, where there is scarcity or absence of health professionals.
International agreement
The Minister of Health said that if he participates in events on US soil, he would be supported by an international agreement that prevents the country’s headquarters from UN organism offices to access participating authorities to the events of the multilateral organization.
“If I have the decision to go, there is the headquarters agreement. To host a UN organism, and PAHO is part of the UN system, it has to comply with the headquarters agreement. One is to guarantee the access of the authorities who are invited and who participate in the activities. But I have no decision yet, whether I will be present or not, because of internal issues.”
Coward
The Health Minister commented that the family had seen them to visit relatives in that country: Padilha’s brother, the niece near his daughter’s, and the minister’s stepmother. They live in the United States and are US citizens.
Padilha again classified as an act of cowardice the cancellation of the visas of his wife and daughter in the United States, but considers that the family impact has already been resolved.
“We will meet elsewhere. We have already overcome this action, this act of cowardice. We are touching life,” he said.
